The Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) unveiled a plan on Monday that promises to squeeze the most out of the U.S. Navy’s existing surface assets — between now and 2025 when the Navy’s shipbuilding budget will be hard pressed by the Ohio-class replacement program’s (ORP) — while at the same time promising new capabilities such as lasers and modifying existing systems like air defense missiles to increase range and also be used for strike, the report’s author told reporters at a briefing on Monday. Read More →

Sailors assigned to the submarine tender USS Frank Cable (AS 40) lower a wreath into the water as naval officers from Australia, Indonesia and the United States observe during a ceremony in honor of the crews of the U.S. Navy heavy cruiser USS Houston (CA 30) and the Royal Australian Navy light cruiser HMAS Perth (D29) on Oct. 14, 2014. US Navy Photo

The U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command has finalized its report on the wreck of USS Houston (CA-30) — a cruiser sunk by the Imperial Japanese Navy in an early World War II battle off the coast of Indonesia. Read More →

Many are asking why the Turks are not doing more to enable the Kurds and their feared Peshmerga forces to more effectively attack the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS or ISIL) military forces. Surely the Turks see this through the ancient ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend” lens? Read More →

The Australian government has confirmed it’s tracking a flotilla of Russian Navy warships operating in international waters near Australia’s northern coast, according to a Wednesday statement from the Australian Ministry of Defence (MoD). Read More →

The United States and China, “are operating on two different playing fields” when it comes to transparency of their military activities and intentions in the Pacific, a former senior State Department official told a security forum at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) think tank on Wednesday. Read More →